Ladder builder steps up from £10,000 lottery win to £10.3m jackpot

A ladder builder who thought he had won £10,000 on the lottery was "gobsmacked" to find he had scooped £10.3 million.

John Bowman, 59, from Forfar in Angus, checked his numbers from Saturday night's Lotto draw the following morning but it was not until he showed a friend his ticket he realised he had won 1,000 times what he thought.

He immediately phoned his daughters but Emma, 27, said she "feared the worst" after listening to the message asking her to call back over something "very, very important".

Her down-to-earth father has vowed he will not be "buying Porsches or anything stupid like that" with his £10,317,199 winnings, instead setting his sights on a place in the sun.

He said: "Originally I thought it was £10,000 but I was speaking to my mate and he looked it up on his phone and he said 'It's £10.3 million', so I was a wee bit gobsmacked when he told me that.

"The first thing I did was phone my daughters and Emma wasn't able to answer her phone so I left a message saying 'Can you please get in touch with me, it's very, very important'.

"I don't know if that was the best thing that I should have said because it put her on edge as to what it was but, anyway, when she phoned me back she got the good news."

Mr Bowman has given up his job at Ramsay Ladders in Forfar and went to his local pub to celebrate his win with a pint.

Revealing how he intends to spend his windfall, he said: "I'm going to buy a house in Scotland, probably, and one abroad as well.

"I like the sun so it will be some place hot and some place where the rest of the family can go and have a good time as well."

The sports fan, who played for Perth team St Johnstone when he was younger, added: "I like the Grand Prix, I'm thinking of going to Monaco Grand Prix, if I can get tickets that will be ideal. I like football so I'll take in a lot of games.

"I won't be getting anything extravagant, buying Porsches or anything stupid like that. My main intention is getting some place nice to live and making sure my family's okay."

He bought the only winning ticket - with numbers 2, 5, 14, 42, 51 and 55 - from RS McColl on East High Street in his home town.

It makes him Scotland's latest lottery millionaire after David and Carol Martin, from Hawick in the Scottish Borders, claimed half of an historic £66 million lottery jackpot earlier this year.